[K&C] Gul'danstein, Controllock's Reincarnation
- Last updated Jan 13, 2018 (Kobolds Patch)
- Edit
- |
Wild
- 20 Minions
- 9 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Control Warlock
- Crafting Cost: 8200
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/15/2017 (Frozen Throne)
- Kovachut
- Card Design Champion
-
- 15
- 35
- 110
-
Battle Tag:
N/A
-
Region:
EU
-
Total Deck Rating
201
Welcome to the K&C Controllock guide
Intro
Knights of the Frozen Throne - if there was something I was crossing my fingers for, that was the warlock set. I got happily surprised, when we got some new cool and powerful cards, which were enough to make controllock viable again. The new expansion made Warlock even more popular and people were creative enough to come up with various new deck-types.
I, however, still like the play-style of my old deck, so I wanted to keep it as much as possible.
Like with the other ones, if you have any ideas on what I should change, some combos you want to share, then, please, let me know. You can criticize my deck's version all you want, as every feedback will be welcomed. :)
Strategy
- Versus Faster decks - killing their stuff, gaining board control, stabilization;
- Versus Control - throwing big stuff on the board (of course respecting their board clears and preserving your resources as much as needed) and exhausting them;
- Versus Combo and Burn - Let RNGesus have mercy on you. That or include some "tech" cards. Make a board ASAP.
General Mulligan
- Versus Faster decks - Defile, Hellfire, Doomsayer/Stonehill Defender/Kobold Librarian; going second - maybe Mistress of Mixtures/Lesser Amethyst Spellstone or Corridor Creeper, but only if you have AoE;
- Versus Control - Kobold Librarian, Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, Stonehill Defender/Rin, the First Disciple, when going second - a 5 drop. If you are certain it's a control MU, then also keep Bloodreaver Gul'dan at all cost!!!
- Versus Combo (e.g. Razapriest) - minions on curve. Also keep Bloodreaver Gul'dan, if you have him in your starting hand.
Class specific strategies
Warrior
Tbh since the start of the expansion I don't think I've ever faced a warrior deck on the ladder. If there was something in those lines, then it probably was that Spellstone-Pirate warrior. I will of course update the deck-strategy, when something new occurs, but for now mulligan only against the aggro equivalent.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Against pirate: Normally you have many tools to shut down the opponent's aggression, so just find those cards and respect your health total. Strategy - kill the pirates.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Reserved for something else?]
Hunter
Mid-range. Nothing more to add, just watch out for the hungry hyena or for highmane.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The minionless deck (aka "I lose alone") - And I'm not even sorry for my words. All I'm going to say is - you have enough time to draw your cards, to find your win-condition (Bloodreaver Gul'dan) and to control the board. You don't need anything to tech against this deck - just when they have a secret, don't attack with your minions, try to bounce the cheap battlecry minions and most importantly try not to lower your health, so that you will be in their reach. If you play carefully, then gg wp.
Note: If the opponent switches to Deathstalker Rexxar, well, now they start to play the value game. I would say, build a board of your own and try to keep it. Since the only burst they have is Kill Command, they can't really kill you out of nowhere and if you have enough health, don't be afraid to tap. The Zombeasts are unpredictable, but very often expensive, so they can't play that many stuff on the same turn. Bloodreaver Gul'dan will shine against their DK. ;)
Paladin
Aggro with Murlocs. Kill the Murlocs. Defile and Hellfire will certainly shine in this MU, so use them well. Bonemare, Corridor Creeper and Blessing of Kings may give us a little trouble; if you have board presence, you will be in a better spot. Be wary of Leeroy Jenkins and a probable 10-damage burst from hand with Blessing of Kings.
Note: tbh I also remove the divine shield from their minions, even if it means, that my minions will become vulnerable to a trade. That way I deny the potential snowball effect out of the Rallying Blades' buffs.
Rogue
Keleseth Rogue - since this deck is more common than the others, I mulligan only against it. Keep their board clean as much as possible, so that you won't get hit hard by a buffed minion with Cold Blood or Bonemare. Watch out for Vilespine Slayer and Corridor Creeper. Other than that only Leeroy Jenkins is the scariest burst they can offer, so unless you are low on health, you should be fine.
Shaman
Inb4 since the expansion hit, I almost never faced a shaman deck. If you do however, this is what the MU is going to be:
Token shaman - Kill their board and establish one of your own. Once you do that, the rest is easy. Play around the Bloodlust win-condition! Just do the math and consider the right time for an AoE. Defile and Hellfire are the MVP here.
Druid
50%-50%
I would expect Token Dudu first, because there we have better chances to win. Because they have an exploding start - you have to destroy their board as fast as possible. Play around the possible burst from Savage Roar. Defile and Hellfire are like an MVP in here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Against jade Dudu - Since I don't run Skulking Geist anymore, this deck will surely give us a hard time. I would just advice you to be as aggressive as possible. Find your demons, find your Bloodreaver Gul'dan and try to go over your opponent from there. If you also get Rin, the First Disciple and she isn't miraculously silenced, then play her, but she will feel kinda slow in this MU.
Warlock [out-dated]
I mostly expect zoo, so mulligan for that MU first. There isn't much to add, rather than to respect your health total and try to keep board control. The difficult part is, that they rarely run out of steam. That's why the starting hand and how you will handle your resources is crucial in this MU.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Against handlock. I would advice you to play normally (minions on curve) and thus to pressure the opponent from there. Just don't throw that many bodies to Abyssal Enforcer/Hellfire, Defile or to Twisting Nether. Tip - try to switch to your DK faster than them. Use Doomsayer along the way (you can also use him to block your opponent, if they are about to play a giant on turn 4).
Mage [out-dated]
General mulligan - Mistress of Mixtures, Tar Creeper/Stonehill Defender, Twilight Drake.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quest mage - one of those MUs, which I consider an unfavourable one. That's because we don't have enough tools in this deck, which we can use to counter 'em. The only way in winning against them is to simply make a board ASAP and to pressure them. If they play Acolyte of Pain with almost a full hand, try to find a way to overdraw them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In comparison to the previous deck, Secret mage is a less unfavourable MU, because we can at least do something against them. Play around their secrets. When checking for Counterspell, throw away cheap spells or such, which you won't use anyway and then go for the removal. For their Mirror Entity we have Mistress of Mixtures and Doomsayer. The scariest thing against them, is when they start to SMorc, they go all-in, while their burn is ready.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grinder mage. I wouldn't worry too much about it, since in my opinion this deck is slow and thus it will give us the needed time so that we draw our cards. If you are somehow certain, that you've stumbled upon this deck, don't use the hero power, as they can mill you with their Coldlight Oracles. Also, use the heals for later, because they could burn you down after an Alexstrasza turn. Try to play around Icy Touch, that means respect the different kinds of AoEs, which they would use at a specific moment - Blizzard or Volcanic Potion (3-health minions), Flamestrike (5-health minions), some single-target removals etc or just don't play anything at all at a certain point. Hope you get your DK on time.
Priest [out-dated]
Mulligan - Really depending on what you face. I'm saying this. because many of the cards versus the one deck won't be that helpful versus the other and vise-versa. Against Big Priest you need to find your removals ASAP, maybe some minions to use them for some kind of board control. Against Raza - pressure and Bloodreaver Gul'dan.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machine gun priest (aka Highlander Priest). A bad MU. Just keep in mind, that their deck doesn't consist of duplicates, so keep track on the cards, which have passed. Build a board, deny their minions from getting bigger. Be careful not to over commit and to lose your stuff to Dragonfire Potion or to Shadowreaper Anduin's battlecry. My advice is use the strongest minions one by one, because they don't have infinite Shadow Word: Deaths and you will make them use a board clear early on.
If they start to go face, you have some heal options, so unless you are full on health, safe the heals for later.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Big EZ priest. A hard MU, if they play Barnes on curve. This may be a bad advice, but don't kill their minions, because they can resurrect 'em with Eternal Servitude. A 1/1 Obsidian Statue isn't scary at all (it's a different story, if it's something else). You won't die by turn 8, where they will start playing their biggest things. Use Twisting Nether, If they have a big board (mainly Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound and Ysera). Once they played the DK and the Dragonfire Potion, you can safely spam the beefy bodies.
When killing Obsidian Statue with your board, make sure to play a useless minion, so that you narrow down the chances of losing something big.
Resume for the different MUs:
Stay tuned.
For now I'm only adding the obvious answers (some time later I will also explain them):
Good against - every minion-centered aggro deck
Bad against - Highlander Priest, Burn Mage*, Big Priest, Jade Dudu
[K&C]Explanation for some cards and advice for replacements:
- Bloodmage Thalnos - Both this card and Tainted Zealot have their own pros and cons. Before the meta consisted of control decks, that's why I ran the Zealot over Thalnos. But since those times have passed, the card draw got more important than the ability to clear a sticky board.
- The whole Mountain Giant-Faceless Shambler-Sunfury Protector-Twilight Drake package - It was clear, that I had to make some changes to the deck regarding the current meta state. Since the aggro decks got really popular, there was no need for the big boys. That's why I wanted to tech in more appropriate cards - Golakka Crawler (obvious tech against pirates) and Hellfire to have more ways to deal with an annoying board. Right now without using the package as a whole, the drakes don't feel that impressive to me anymore. Still, they can help you make valuable trades.
- Stonehill Defender - his time to shine in the warlock class will be in a week from now. But right now having the ability to stall the game, until you find Bloodreaver Gul'dan felt to be really useful, that's why I replaced The Lich King. He was slow and unpredictable anyway, no need for unnecessary value, when most of the decks are fast ones.
[K&C note] - Once the meta settles, I will tech better. I just wait for the meta to fully settle down.
Skulking Geist - If somehow jade dudu makes a comeback, I would replace either Rin, the First Disciple, because we don't need more expensive drops, or Shroom Brewer. But if the meta were to become slower, then that card will be cut immediately. Back to the Geist - he can also disrupt the game plan of cubelock, if you have some problems with it, but I would personally tech
Spellbreaker - Some people have advised me to use him. Normally I search for techs, which were to help me against the bad MUs. I don't really give a shit about a 4/6 Carnivorous Cube, which has eaten a Voidlord (against a Doomguard this is another story :P). Still, if Rin, the First Disciple were to get popular, then yeah, you could save yourself with this tech. But imho Spellbreaker would be more useful in any other deck than the control or cubelock, as the other decks have reasons to silence us, but not that much about the opposite.
The whole N'Zoth, the Corruptor package (+ Voidlord, + Possessed Lackey,Plated Beetle) - If you ask me, this package is very strong, maybe even stronger than the demons in my deck. I, however, just want to go with a more safe approach, I'm fine with playing them from hand and not getting a massive wall on the board. If Spellbreaker were to become popular, then I just don't want to risk losing because of not being able to pull out a big taunt from a silenced 2/2 body or just getting stuck with a bad, expensive hand. Inb4 Master Oakheart is superfluous in the popular controllock deck. I would run something else instead.
Shroom Brewer - I like this more than the Plated Beetle, because although 2 mana more expensive, this guy can also heal your minions and this allows me to make more favourable trades. Kinda not sure if I want to keep him, I don't always achieve that much. Against Burn decks this is a good tech, it also helped me go out of range against someone's reach, but like I said in the comment section, if the meta will become a bit more slow-ish, then this guy will go. (check the N'zoth package above)
I don't own the picture, used above. Source here.
Kinda an unnecessary post:
With this deck I managed to hit Rank 3:
I know that people are reaching high legend ranks with their cubedecks, this isn't so impressive, I understand, but tbh I don't wanted to grind any further. It was an annoying chore anyway.
Inb4 what I like about the deck, is that it has A LOT of free space, which with the time can be filled with the more fitting techs or with a strong win-condition or something in those lines. Not sure if i want to be all that anti-aggroish, but for now I'm exhausted and I can't really come up with more fitting inclusions for now. [read the Card Explanation part]
The last update will be coming soon.
Thoughts:
One thing - I try to make the deck the less greedier as possible. I don't want to run N'Zoth, the Corruptor with the Voidlords, I prefer to have small minions, which I can always play + those have a real impact on the board. They may be vulnerable to a board clear after I summon them with Gul'dan, but I prefer their bodies instead + I can never say no to the 3 damage board clear of the Abyssal Enforcers, nor the small whirlwind effect of the Despicable Dreadlords. I always have cheap stuff (3 mana taunts), a lot of AoEs and heals, which I can use to stall the game and to stabilize. I don't need risky minions, which can backfire sometimes.Yeah, I can admit, that I'm wrong on this one. In my defense this deck did a really wonderful job versus the aggro ones, as I just had so many tools to deal with them, but I admit I have overdone it. Since priest rose in popularity, since Zalae's cubelock took its place in the spotlight, the need for better taunts, more stickier and also a lot more quantity-wise, started to rise. Voidlord, together with the cubes and the burst heal from the dark pacts, proved to be a life-saving outcome from Gul'dan.
I still really, really miss both the abyssal enforcers and the dreadlords, but, sadly, I can't have best of both worlds - I can't keep the taunts and the other board impacting demons. Against Raza the doomguards do a lot better job; if I have to play more tanky, then walls consisting of Voidlords from N'Zoth, while I exhaust my opponents from their resources, just make my opponents rage-quit...
The meta just got really slow and thus my anti-aggro approach turned out to be not so rewarding as I hoped for.
Right now I'm taking the typical control deck on the ladder - the cubelock (N'Zoth with some cheap anti-aggro minions like tar creeper and doomsayers). I will finish the deck description of this page soon, since it feels kinda awkward to leave it unfinished the way it is, but I don't recommend people to use it.
I really appreciate all of your support, I hope the balance change (at best in February) would make a lot of things different, but for now I'm leaving this deck/game-plan. Really sad saying this, since this was my favourite deck back in KOFT - control warlock wasn't that popular as it is right now, it was way more fair to play against it, and it feels really bad to ditch all of this just for a net-deck with a abussive mechanic (recruit).
>Handlock
>No hand-size creatures
might have a go of this as only needing a couple of cheap cards for it.
thx, your opinion would be appreciated a lot
While i am not sold on some of your choices like fellfire potion,you try to make a controllock work ,made a decent guide without begging for upvotes and you gave your deck an awesome name!Hahaha, your picture also made me laugh! :D
For all the above here +1 from me!
Oh stop it you :3
Anyway I had tried fellfire potion myself .There are plenty of 5 hp minions in 5-6 mana slots so it would work fine if it didn't hit you for 5.Buuut all the popular aggro decks have burn now.That's the reason why control lock is bad atm,as a lock you can clear the board many times but it's all for naught if they finish you of with leeroy combos or doomguard+soulfire.And felfire just puts you close to that.
Now for potential changes.Controllock decks are in a weird spot where you try to balance 2 bad match ups.The tempo aggresive decks like rogue and zoo and the raza priest.You have to sacrifice a big part of your deck to be decent against one and as a result you lose to the other.The highroll potential of the popular decks doesn't help either.So there is not much we can do.What i would change though is
1)-Felfire potion+Hellfire.Yeah i know it does the same thing with defile but it does it consistendly.So many times you are dead in the water if you don't clear by turn 4.So you need that aoe asap.Having 3 makes the deck more consistent.Plus sometimes defile needs help that you can't always afford it.
2)-Zealot+Thalnos.While zealot has more clearing potential,it doesnt guarantee the 1st trigger and most of the times you won't need that big of an aoe.Especially now that jade druid popularity has fallen.Moreover the draw is always usefull vs aggro where you can afford to tap that much.
3)-Shambler+Doomsayer .Shambler is a win more card.When it works is great but it won't work most of the times.If you want a more proactive cards instead of doomsayer,bonemare does the same thing but most of the times better.
4)Finally either have two golakas or none.The golakas are weird cards.You put one of them only in highlander decks.You either want to target pirates and you put two of them so you can draw at least one of them consistendly or you put none.If you decide to remove it,i would add a silence in their place.
Those are my recommendations.However they will make your deck less interesting so take them with a grain of salt
edit
I may consider running Thalnos again.